All Forum Posts by: Lane Kawaoka

I am one not to invest outside you have lived or know well. With that said evaluate those places you are familiar and analyze the price of property vs cash flow and go and invest there. I think you will find that Seattle area will not be as cash flow great as other areas.

I think its a good idea... However if you meet your tenant and you should ever need to evict them the tenant can use your meeting against you to pull some sort of racial/discriminatory claim. Total aloofness of the identity of your tenant is you best defense which is done by having a PM do everything. Also keep in mind in general it is not good to become friends with your tenants.

My first thought was that if they are underpaying then maybe you should just clean house and have them move out so you can screen your own tenants. Obviously do this carefully without having them burn the place down.

Option 2 would be to sit down with them and to gauge their financial status and their level of merit as good tenants. It might be worth it to keep them at a loss of 100 bucks a month off typical rents if they are long term tenants and good tenants.

I dont know but this was always an uncertain reason why I did not want to split a huge home into 3-6 separate units. There are questions about the legitimacy of the house being about to be legally multi units. Here are some links.

http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/

If I have rentals in Washington State (State Tax Free) and live in a state like Hawaii or California with a State tax, do I need to pay state tax? How will it work?

Matt,

First off I think this article is skewed to make you jump on the bandwagon of buying in on a memphis/detroit turn key sight unseen rentals.

Yes Seattle is not great on cash flow but ...

1) There is less competition, (as Tim Ferriss says things are easier in the top of the mountain when you don't have to compete for the 50-150k properties with every Tom Dick and Harry.

2) As much as we are taught not to, Better and solid areas like Seattle are more consistent and offer more reliable appreciation (opps I said it).

3) I am of the strong belief that you need to buy where you are familiar with.

I'm sorry, Tacoma is just to far. I'd prefer Seattle.

Hi, I'm a SFH investor in N Seattle and live in Seattle. Please add me as your friend.